


Protect

by Watermeloness



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, In this house we love ironmom pepper potts, Irondad, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Peter is a good kid just scared, Protective Tony Stark, Spider-son, Therapy, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, he’s been through a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25999681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watermeloness/pseuds/Watermeloness
Summary: Peter comes home early in a really really bad mood and Pepper and Tony try to fix it. Something is really wrong if the kid is freaking out like this.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Original Female Character(s), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 23
Kudos: 359





	Protect

**Author's Note:**

> So this is basically a sneak peak scene of a multi-chapter fic I might start writing, not sure if I’m gonna execute the idea, though.
> 
> What you need to know:
> 
> -Peter has been adopted by Pepper and Tony  
> -He’s had a rough life, came from an abusive home  
> -Peter sees a therapist called Paola regularly  
> -Peter was sexually abused by Skip in his old home. There’s no discussion of what happened, just a mention that it did  
> -Peter is 15
> 
> There is cursing in this fic and a case of sexual abuse of a minor is mentioned. Please stay safe and stop reading now if the topics of child abuse or sexual abuse are triggering for you.
> 
> In case you’ve read my other fic, I apologize for not updating it. I kind of have a writer’s block with it and will resume writing it, if and when I feel like it :)
> 
> Alright enjoy this little snippet! Let me know how I did :)

Tony was sitting on the common room couch with Pepper when a faint ding was heard from the elevator down the hall. He raised his head from the tablet in his hand to mirror his fiance's confused expression. They weren't expecting guests and Peter was supposed to be at school for three more hours. The kid had been surprisingly responsible lately when it came to school. The thought made Tony smile. Maybe they really were doing a good job with the teenager afterall.

The thought vanished the second Tony laid eyes on a furious looking Peter sprinting across the floor to get to his room.

"Kid?"

Peter didn't reply or stay to talk to either of them but dashed straight for his room and all but slammed the door shut after himself.

The confusion on both of the adults' faces morphed into concern. 

Without a word Tony stood up, followed by Pepper, and together they made their way to their kid's room. It was a strange sort of mutual agreement they had somehow developed during their time with the teenager. Sometimes they simply didn’t need words to communicate on how to handle the boy. Tony thought it was kind of cool.

"Pete? You okay?" Tony’s calm voice vibrated throughout the hallway.

An upset sniff was heard from the other side of the door along with some indistinct suffling.  
"Go away!" 

Tony winced at the raw tone in Peter's voice which did nothing to ease the alarming worry the man was feeling. There was seriously something wrong, and now Tony begun to feel the nervousness that he had tried to keep at bay.

Pepper stepped forward and leaned against the door. Tony had never been so grateful for the calm energy his fiance possessed. "Sweetie, did something happen?"

"I said go away! Leave me the fuck alone!" There was a heartbreaking crack in the kid's voice and Tony's heart started hammering inside his chest. What could have happened to make the boy this upset. He hadn't cursed at them like this in a while. Tony couldn’t even remember the last time the kid had reacted this bad to anything.

The worry gnawing inside his rib cage became too much to bear and Tony decided he couldn't keep guessing and opened the door. "Alright we're coming in."

Peter's response was furious and immediate. ”No! Get out!"

Pepper was the first to step inside into the unlit room, Tony following close behind. The woman's voice was calm but firm when she adressed the teenager. ”Honey, we're not going to leave until-"

"Fuck you! It's my room! Get the hell out!” The shrill voice filled the room and Tony cringed at the anguish in it. Damn, the kid is really freaking out.

The lit hallway provided just enough light to the kid's room for the adults to see the hunched form in the corner of the room. Peter was curled in on himself, wrapped in a blanket. With a painful tug at his heart, Tony realized the kid was trying to comfort himself. It brought a picture of a petite child at night hiding under a blanket, because the monsters couldn’t get to him as long as he remained under it, to the front of Tony’s mind. So something had clearly scared the devil out of the kid. But what?

Pepper grabbed Tony's arm and lowered them to the ground, where they sat, several feet away from the young boy. ”Please, please leave.” The boy’s voice was merely a whisper, just loud enough for the couple to hear.

"Peter, honey, talk to us. We can't help you if we don't know what's wrong." Pepper jabbed her elbow into Tony's side with an impatient glare.

"Ough- yeah buddy, you're okay.” Tony rubbed at his side. ”We can help, you just need to tell us what's wrong." 

Apparently this was a wrong thing to say because after that Peter didn't make a sound, apart from the quiet sniffling. It was a terrible sight. The kid was wound up tight as a string stretched to its limits, like he could snap anytime. He wasn't even attempting to make any kind of contact anymore, but instead stayed in the corner, shaking like a leaf.

Tony felt an odd, almost primal surge of protectiveness when he looked at the kid. It was a reaction he couldn’t control and he didn’t even know where it had come from. It was new and exhilarating, but scary. Definitely scary. There was a new way for all the bad guys to hurt him. Tony would give anything, absolutely anything in exchange for Peter’s safety. It was only a matter of time before the lowlifes of the world caught on.

So Tony swore to anyone who was listening, that whoever had terrified the kid out like this, was going to pay. Nobody hurt this amazingly remarkable kid and got away with it.

After another thirty minutes of trying to console the kid with no success, Pepper stood up and dragged a hesitant Tony out of the room.

Letting out a tired sigh, she rubbed her forehead. "I think we need to call Paola. He's stuck and we can't snap him out of it."

Tony felt like crying. Peter had been doing so well lately and this felt like they had returned back to square one. The man hated seeing his kid in pain and it had never been this bad.

————————

After what felt like hours, the door to Peter's room opened and Paola stepped out, closing the door softly.

"He's okay. Tired, but other than that he's perfectly fine, so porfavor, Mr. Stark, take a breath before you keel over."

Tony would have replied with a sarcastic remark if there hadn't been a point to the woman's words. The man drew in a shaky breath now that he knew Peter wasn't dying, or badly hurt.

"We can't thank you enough, Paola. He just- just shut down on us. Did he tell you what’s wrong?" Pepper asked, placing a reassuring hand on Tony's shoulder.

The therapist gave a sad smile as she approached the couple.

"Yes, and I need to talk to you about that."

Well, that didn't sound ominous at all.

The three adults walked to the common room and once they were all seated at the large couch, Paola turned to address the couple.

"Peter told me you are aware of his history of sexual assault?"

Pepper winced but nodded her head. Tony almost chocked on his own saliva at the bluntness of the woman. Hearing about Peter’s past never got any easier, even if the boy liked to pretend nothing ever happened. He gripped Pepper's hand just a tad harder. "Yeah, I hope that motherfucker rots in his cell."

An inauspicious expression took over Paola's features as she sent the two adults a sympatethic grimace.

"Well, the thing is that he's not." The therapist stated, elaborating after a small pause. "Rotting in his cell."

Tony's blood ran cold as dread washed over him in a warm rush of emotion.

"What?" The engineer’s voice was strained.

"Now, I promised Peter I wouldn't let you two do anything rash. So when I tell you this, you're going to stay on this couch and figure out a reasonable plan of action."

Tony knew he couldn't. If it was something bad he knew he couldn't just stay sitting down and do nothing. This was about his child. He couldn't. Thankfully Pepper answered for the both of them, so he wouldn’t have to make empty promises to this miracle of a woman that they wouldn’t have survived without.

"Okay."

Paola let out a sigh. "Steve Wescott was at Peter's school today."

Tony jumped up, startling the two women. He saw red. That fucking piece of shit. Tony couldn't breathe. He was going to kill him. That motherfucker had been at his kid's school. Why had he been there? Did something happen? Did he do something to Peter? The thought made Tony freeze. Oh god, he couldn't breathe.

"Tony, calm down-"

"Don't! Don't tell me to calm down! F.R.I.D.A.Y my suit!"

"Tony! Stop!"

The red and gold suit encased Tony and he swirled around to face Pepper.

"He's my kid!" There was something desperate in the way he screamed, the face plate lifting up. "He's my kid, okay? And he's terrified, you saw him!"

Pepper placed a calming hand on Tony's metal encased arm. Though he couldn't feel it, there was a certain soothing element about it.  
"He’s mine too, Tony!” She raised her voice to compete with the volume of her fiancee’s. He's our kid. And trust me, there's nothing I want more than seeing that piece of shit suffer-" she gave him a sorrowful look. "but I can’t raise him alone. He needs you, Tony. How are you going to raise a teenager from a prison cell?"

The theraphist took this as her cue to step in.  
"He needs you. Both of you." 

Tony wanted to do what the women were telling him to, but he was still consumed by the rush of adrenaline and the need to listen to that fierce part of him that screamed protect. Because that's what he wanted, no, needed. 

"And I need him safe." His voice was hoarse and there was a suspicious burn in his eyes that he wanted to ignore. 

Paola smiled at him, radiating that special sort of warmness that only she seemed to possess.  
"He is. He's here, no? Nothing can get to him here, remember? You told me nothing gets past you in this building. Was that a lie?"

A flare of offence ignited in Tony's chest and his response was immediate, biting. "No." He huffed. "Nothing can touch him here. I won't let it."

"Vale, then take off the metal suit and go talk to your child. He needs to tell you the whole altercation." 

Tony’s heart was still racing like a wild horse and his hands shook with the need to tear Steven Wescott into tiny little pieces, but Tony knew. He knew the kid needed him and he also knew that there was no way for him to ever resist the kid ever again. The kid had slowly but surely weaseled his way into Tony’s heart and made himself a home in it. And the word Tony had spent the majority of his life being scared of suddenly didn’t seem all that scary anymore.

A father. 

Hmm, it did have a nice ring to it.


End file.
